I've had Braelon Allen on my bench for half the season, and I was close to cutting him loose this week. Better hang onto him for a little bit longer, though, since he might have a larger role than anticipated on Sunday.
Breece Hall comes out of the bye week experiencing knee soreness. The Jets say they're "hopeful" he'll play. Hopeful is easily the most annoying word for player availability that coaches have been utilizing in recent years. Hopeful means absolutely nothing -- it doesn't, for example, mean they think he'll play, which is the information people are actually looking for. Anyone can be hopeful.
We've been kind of guessing that there may be some Jets starters missing games in the weeks to come, veteran guys like A-A-ron Rodgers and Davante Adams specifically. But if the 3-8 Jets give in fully to the idea of pulling down the shutters and switching off the lights on the 2024 season, you'd think their franchise running back would also be a candidate to sit out. He's the most important guy to have fully healthy in 2025, after all, or at least one of the top few.
Hall's direct backup is fourth-round rookie Braelon Allen, and looking at Allen's season-long numbers, you might not see much to get excited about: 62 carries for 229 yards, which is just 3.7 per attempt. He's caught 10 passes, and has 3 total touchdown. Nothing special.
But let's look at early in the year, before the Jets made what seems like a dubious decision to fire Robert Saleh. Back then, Braleon was playing and playing well, looking not that much different from Hall -- seeming like he should be playing more frankly.
It's a small sample set, but here's Allen in the three games early on where he had more than 8 touches. Two of those games were against quality defenses.
| ALLEN WITH OPPORTUNITY | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Att | Run | Avg | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| at Ten. | 7 | 33 | 4.7 | 2 | 23 | 2 | 19.6 |
| N.E. | 11 | 55 | 5.0 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 9.8 |
| Den. | 8 | 34 | 4.3 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 5.6 |
It's not a ton to look at -- one great game, one so-so game, one with not much (that was a game New York lost 10-9 against a great Broncos defense). But that's while averaging 10-11 touches as the No. 2. If Hall is out, moving Allen into the No. 1 spot, he'd be a nice player to stick into a lineup.
Since that time, Allen has only one other game with more than 8 touches. That was at New England, and he rushed for 32 yards and scored his third touchdown that week.
It's early, so who knows. But if you can add Allen to a roster right now, it's a worthwhile move. Some chance he'll be a useful player in Week 13. And if I were Woody Johnson, who's apparently heavily involved with the day-to-day decision-making, I'd be telling the team that Allen should be playing more, with Hall being held back for more meaningful games in 2025.
--Andy Richardson